Paul Murphy spirits Rathmore to a place they've been before

Rathmore are well used to semi-finals - it's taking the extra step that has frustratingly eluded them over the past decade and more

THE RYAN LINE: Rathmore's Cathal Ryan evades the challenge of Austin Stacks' Joe O’Connor in Saturday's Kerry Petroleum Club SFC quarter-final at Fitzgerald Stadium. Pic: Tatyana McGough

Kerry Club SFC quarter-final: Rathmore 1-14 Austin Stacks 0-16

Another semi-final secured for Rathmore. A different outcome they chase. They’re ready to take the next step.

Rathmore reached the last four of both the club and county championship in 2025. Na Gaeil pipped them by a point in the former. Stacks surged past them by seven in the latter.

Go back further in the calendar. There was a 2024 club semi-final fail. There was a 2023 county semi-final fall.

This is a juncture they repeatedly frequent. This is a juncture they repeatedly exit at. It’s a reality they are desperate to rewrite.

Even without injured All-Star ‘keeper Shane Ryan, the quality is there to go and reach a concluding Sunday. The concluding Sunday of the Kerry club championship they haven’t reached in 14 years.

“We were at the same stage last year and Na Gaeil beat us, so while today is a great day out for us, there are no medals handed out either,” said Paul Murphy post-match.

“We’ve been in a few semi-finals over the past few years in club and county, so we’ll be doing everything we can this week to recover initially and then do our best to put in a really good performance (against Milltown-Castlemaine) next weekend again.” 

Murphy was Saturday’s match-winner. He assisted Alan Dineen’s green flag opener and took responsibility for their last.

This second of Saturday’s quarter-final double-header had threatened to go in the very same direction as the first. A second serving of extra-time seemed the most plausible outcome when Paddy Lane’s two-point effort 70 seconds from the hooter - the young Stacks talent was making his first return to competitive fare since May’s All-Ireland U20 final win - went right and wide.

Cathal Ryan was fouled under the ensuing restart. The consequent free shortly wound up in his hands. He offloaded to Brian Friel, the sub fisting possession inside to Murphy.

Duty was not shirked or offloaded. With 35 seconds to run, Murphy's right boot sent Rathmore into the last four.

“It was a shot to nothing. In the first game, Milltown had an attack [in the last minute], just didn’t get the shot away. If it didn’t go over, we were probably facing into extra-time and you’d live with that. So, it was have a go, and it went over today, so happy enough,” Murphy continued.

“It felt like a good, proper championship game. There was very little lateral play.” 

The Kerry corner-back is not wrong in his assessment. The second quarter-final was superior in many ways to the extra-time fixture that had come before. Put simply, it was of a higher standard.

For Stacks, there’s regret over three first-half goal chances that yielded only a single point. Ryan O’Driscoll had the first opportunity, his effort knocked over by William Casey. The goalkeeper next got down so well to deny Cian Purcell. Third time unlucky was the fate of Joe O’Connor, his palmed effort into a largely open goal coming back off the post. A costly miss.

They still led 0-10 to 1-6 at the turnaround and twice pushed two in front during the third quarter through Conor Horan’s free-taking and Ronan Carroll’s second from play.

Orange sustained their opponents during the same period. Half-back Alan Dineen’s two-pointer on 40 minutes brought Rathmore level at 1-9 to 0-12. A Mark Ryan two-pointer four minutes later once again delivered stalemate. The strengthening breeze was to their advantage.

Brian Friel’s 47th minute lead point was the first occasion they assumed pole position since the quarter-hour mark. Murphy’s temperament and leadership made sure that was still their position at the hooter.

“They dug deep in the second half. A lot of teams would have wilted,” said winning boss Aidan O’Mahony, before attention was turned to their latest semi-final opponents.

“I watched Milltown/Castlemaine’s game. To go to extra-time and grind out a win against a team like Kenmare that are after winning the county league, we are taking no one for granted. We won’t be taking anyone lightly and we can’t either.” 

Scorers for Rathmore: A Dineen (1-2, tp); C Ryan (0-3, tp); M Ryan (tp), F Murphy (0-2 each); P Murphy, A Moynihan, J Darmody, C Collins (free), B Friel (0-1 each).

Scorers for Austin Stacks: C Horan (0-7, 2tp frees, 0-3 frees); R O’Driscoll, D Casey, R Carroll (0-2 each); D Kirby, P Lane (free), G Horan (0-1 each).

RATHMORE: W Casey; T Holohan, D Murphy, C O’Connor; D Nagle, P Murphy, A Dineen; A Moynihan, M Ryan; F Murphy, C Ryan, P Moynihan; B O’Keeffe, J Darmody, C Collins.

Subs: B Friel for P Moynihan (41); F Holohan for T Holohan (43); M Reen for Darmody (50); D Rahilly for B O’Keeffe (51); M Dennehy for Nagle (55).

AUSTIN STACKS: M Tansley; C Griffin, J Nagle, D Casey; J O’Shea, A Heinrich, J Murphy; J O’Connor, D Kirby; M O’Donnell, C Horan, E Carroll; R O’Driscoll, C Purcell, R Carroll.

Subs: G Horan for E Carroll (41); R Shanahan for Murphy, P Lane for Purcell (both 48); S O’Callaghan for C Horan (51); G Casey for O’Donnell (55).

Referee: S Joy (Killorglin)